migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

The UK's response has been disgusting. No other word for it. I'm ashamed. These are not 'immigrants' they're refugees. They are human beings and in serious need of help. People in the UK want to take more in, by and large. Politicians don't.

It's a disgrace.

[geoff]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

It would seem Germany's open door policy has had to end, A shot across the bows to the other EU member states to start taking more refugees or sanctions may be imposed which will hit the eastern states hardest.

Did Germany massively underestimate the number of people heading their way?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/13/germany-to-close-borders-exit-schengen-emergency-measures

[DanieMarie]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

I'm sort of in the middle of this right now. Germany predicts it will have processed up to 800,000 refugee status applications by the end of the year. As a big city, a LOT of those people are ending up in Berlin. I just got back, but I've been closely following the situation over the past few weeks. The reaction of both our government and the people here really warms my heart. Germany has stretched its refugee quota immensely and is willing to take hundreds of thousands of people. As Europe's richest country, I'm glad that it's seeing its role in this situation fairly. Although there have been negative reactions to the refugees, people have been super positive overall. It has brought a tear to my eye a number of times. In several cities, refugee centres don't even need donations and volunteers anymore because of the sheer outpour of help. People are looking into alternative ways of helping like teaching German, helping with documents and applications, and just hanging out and showing people around the city. It's seriously amazing.

That being said, Germany can't do it all alone, and this is a huge issue in Europe. Countries like Greece just can't support refugees at this point, and although some countries are doing a lot, some are not. Like Gleb said, Europe as a whole needs some help. I (and the government, and pretty much everyone else here) thinks its time that the US, Canada, Australia, and other wealthy nations start accepting more people. So far, the reaction has been pretty sad (especially in Australia...seriously).

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Then we here in the US have stirred that hot pot way to much....I have a bad feeling though...when the economy dips,the monster "They took out Jobs" pops up over and over again.

Europe is not all that good about immigrants to start with,there are VERY right wing groups across Europe.

There are....Hungary is NOT dealing with this well, for example (and a chunk of the people they're holding don't even want to be there...they're moving north).

That being said, you'd be surprised about the mood in a lot of countries. The British put so much pressure on its Conservative government that it actually caved and agreed to accept more refugees. Germany's government is quite conservative (but definitely not far-right) and people have been traditionally shy about immigration into the country, but views have steadily been changing over the past 10 years since I've been living here and as I said above, the response here has been pretty heartwarming. I can't speak for all of Europe because each country is very different, both socially and economically, but I think this could be great for Deutschland. We need more people, because our population has been steadily declining over the past decades and no amount of family-friendly policies seems to stop the decline entirely. Germany is pretty densely populated, but it needs a pretty big base to keep running its industrial powerhouse. On top of that, such a huge influx of people is quickly changing how people view immigration and multiculturalism. Now, the trend on those fronts has been positive over the past few years (I think the wave of people from Southern Europe after the Euro crisis hit really helped), but this could be something that could really push things in a more progressive direction.

That being said, I think it's super important that the government keep its eye on previous domestic issues. Development kind of sucks in the former east (no jobs, no hope) and there is still a lot of poverty in this country (less than a lot of other countries, but it's there). A lot of the backlash against the refugees is actually coming from the former east, and I doubt that true hate is the real culprit. I hope that when everyone is done volunteering with refugees, they keep donating their time and money to helping the homeless, underprivileged kids, the elderly, etc. I also hope the government would do -something- about the situation in the former east, because it's handled things pretty poorly since 1990.

[anunitu]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

Not withstanding all the facts,the "public" is easily stirred up.

[thalassa]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

Then we here in the US have stirred that hot pot way to much....I have a bad feeling though...when the economy dips,the monster "They took out Jobs" pops up over and over again.

Which is silly because they contribute to our economy. They pay taxes. They often do jobs we aren't willing to do. They often do those jobs in conditions we wouldn't tolerate (and they shouldn't either).

Case in point:

http://mic.com/articles/8272/alabama-illegal-immigrant-crackdown-destroys-farm-business

http://www.forbes.com/sites#/sites/realspin/2012/05/17/the-law-of-unintended-consequences-georgias-immigration-law-backfires/

[anunitu]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

Then we here in the US have stirred that hot pot way to much....I have a bad feeling though...when the economy dips,the monster "They took out Jobs" pops up over and over again.

Europe is not all that good about immigrants to start with,there are VERY right wing groups across Europe.

[thalassa]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

How it might be determined, I've not quite worked out...but...I think that countries should have to take the percentage of people in that corresponds with their culpability in causing or exacerbating the problem with their action or inaction.

[anunitu]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

Mainly the ones coming out of Syria...running from the wars..also from Iraq...A LOT of people and deaths from extreme ways to smuggle them in.

[Gleb]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

Exactly. I'm not sure about which immigrants you're talking about but let's take those from Africa for instance - there are many in Tel-Aviv. They're safe, maybe don't have the best food or beds but there were several crimes caused specifically by those immigrants. So yeah.. It's risky.

[anunitu]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

The UN can suggest,but really it has no real power to control anything.

Pope says take people in(The Vatican actually going to do that)..BUT a large influx of people into Europe will in my opinion will end badly over time.

[Gleb]

Re: migrants:What to do...Europe needs to decide.

Usually I don't get into such debates but I'll give this one a shot. Europe isn't capable of helping all those immigrants. Doesn't matter if they're from Syria or Africa. Everything starts from the government. If the government didn't oppress the citizens, everything would be fine. Of course there will be never normal government in those areas. So the question is - what should the UN do about these governments?

[anunitu]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...3b9_story.html

I might think this should be a debate because it "Might" generate some disagreement.

Anyway,what are your thoughts(A lot in the news these days)Also,should the USA be in this concern also?